![States, Retailers Push to End Online Tax Loophole](http://townsquare.media/site/67/files/2011/09/money_20_dollars_flickr_user_Images_of_Money1.jpg?w=980&q=75)
States, Retailers Push to End Online Tax Loophole
ST. PAUL (AP) - If you buy a book, TV, computer or some other taxable item at a store in Minnesota, you'll pay sales tax of about 7 percent. Shop for the same item on the Internet, and it's not hard to find a merchant that doesn't charge sales taxes.
An alliance of cash-strapped states and angry retailers is trying to close a loophole that lets online sales escape state sales taxes.
Best Buy, Target and other chains are lining up behind a bill to allow states
to require all online retailers to collect sales taxes. The states hope to recover an estimated $23 billion in taxes that now go uncollected.
Officials say lost sales tax revenue costs Minnesota as much as $400 million a year.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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